thelonious's Latest Posts

25/05/2019 - We've driven past this one a few times. Never really felt the right time to visit. We had got moving early as the rain was due. Coming through Lairg we decided to stop and have a look. Good parking in the layby to the north on A836. Just a short walk along the road to the gate leading to the rough pasture where the circle is. I liked the little climb up to the stones. Only half the circle left and a few small stones hinting at an inner circle. I liked this one.

24/05/2019 - This one is not far from the road. Easy parking. This cairn is right in the middle of a cleared township. Makes you wonder what they thought about it as they went about their daily lives. The cairn is pretty ruined but it's still worth a look if you are passing. We walked on a bit further to have a look at the hut circles to the north and then on to Pole Hill. This area is full of hut circles. If you have time Carn Gruama Beag is worth a walk up. The views down Loch Naver are excellent.

23/05/2019 - On the way back from visiting the stone rows to the south east we finally reached Clach an Righ. What a welcome sight. It's a lovely looking circle. Not that big but the stones are a good size. Each upright stone's axis is radial to the centre. Reminded me of The Great U of Stemster in that regard. I can't think of others like this. I'm sure there are lots though. We plonked down on a nearby log to finished off our brews. Just taking in the scene.

With a nod to Gladman, it was finally time to head off again. His photos and fieldnotes had put an idea in our heads to seek out this place. He's good at doing that.

23/05/2019 – Lets start this by saying one thing – Multiple stone rows are brilliant. This is a fact, if you don’t agree, move on. There’s no place for you here.

Look where these are on the map! Right bang in the centre of the middle of nowhere. I just had to visit.

14 or so miles in the rain there and back. And look at the photos! They look rubbish, why the hell bother? No bragging rights to be had here for this little lot when you get back home and show the photos to friends and family. They’ll just shake their heads and give you that look, it’s just poor old thelonious and his stone thing, least it keeps him away from the normal folk.

Who wants to be normal though? As much as folk don’t get why we visit stones, I don’t get why the masses spend all Saturday and every Saturday in shopping centres. Is it living, really living? Not for me. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we are all a little odd on here. It’s good to be odd a little I think. Hello to my fellow oddities :-)

We were going to start at Rosal but there was logging going on so we parked a little SE at the start of the track off the B871 near the corner of the forest marked on the OS map (NC 7021 4141). From there it was up over Beinn Rosail to the kerb cairn on Meall a' Choire Bhuidhe. Raining and a bit rubbish underfoot. To visit the kerb cairn there’s a deer fence and trees to contend with (I’ve grumped about this elsewhere). From here we made for the track to the south at NC 6943 3778. I was really tired today and the damp wasn’t helping my mood. The stone rows still looked a long way off on the map but from now on it was track most of the way so after a couple of Jammie Dodgers for power we headed SE.

It’s a pretty straight forward enough walk from here. Just keep on the track until you hit the ride heading SW at NC 7189 3516. Straight up along that and it takes you to the big clearing which has the rows in it.

42 stones in 4 rows counted in 1975. The ground is slowly eating them up. We could only find 9 or 10. The big 4 terminal stones are still showing well. I use the word big in relation to the other stones. They are all pretty small. I’d say none over 0.5m. Such a great site though. Prehistory mini mysteries.

There’s a probable standing stone to NW too.

We sat and had our butties and a brew. Tired, wet but very happy. It was now just a matter of a trigpoint and another hill top to find and then it was back to the track and the start via the excellent Clach an Righ stone circle.

Rubbish weather and tough walking to get there. Once there a high deer fence to contend with. Last 50 metres was a thick forest of trees and a quagmire underfoot. No views and the cairn is pretty hidden.

20/05/2019 – Finally made it here. Our visit to this cairn had been a long time coming. First noticed it on the map well over a year ago. It ticked a lot of boxes for me. A cairn, high up on a hill, in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t really matter if it turned out a bit rubbish, the adventure to get there looked worth the trip alone.

After spending the last year boring Mrs T about how we really should make the journey up to see it, we decided to go for it. Our whole 10 day trip up north was based round this cairn marked on the map. I didn’t really know anything about it and avoided looking for photos on the web. I wanted a surprise.

Staying in Durness I didn’t really relish the idea of a walk there and back so after a bit of digging we found out Durness run a Dial-a-bus. It’s not everyday and mostly in the morning I think. Phoned up the evening before and the woman said no problem, pick you up in Durness at 10.00am tomorrow to take you to Laid, on the other side of the hills east of Durness. 8-9 miles or so, less than £2 each!!! Brilliant service.

We got dropped off at the start of a track heading up hill (NC 4160 5958). Just north of the phone box (marked on map) on the A838. We used the track to gain a bit of height and then followed the Allt an Lagain uphill. Don’t start heading off early towards the cairn. Best to hit the ridge as it’s stone and makes walking a lot easier. Very interesting area for walking. The stones/rocks are great round here. Weather today was very rubbish. Our heads were down and our hoods were up. The rain was heavy at times and the hillside misty. It didn’t matter though. In fact it added to the atmosphere. After a time a shape appeared in the distance, I thought surely that’s not it. It looked brilliant. As we got closer the rain lessened and the mist cleared. There it was – a wonderful D-shaped Neolithic chambered cairn. Wow!

I was really taken with this one. It’s still in great nick and these folk really knew how to pick a location. Everything combined to make a wonderful visit. The mist on the hill, the quiet, the cairn and the great views down to Loch Eriboll and beyond.

Nice D-shaped front to the cairn and you can make out where the passage would be. After walking round it a few times we just stood to catch our breaths and take it all in. Finally we had made it here and it felt good.

Worth mentioning are a small lines of cairns heading north from here. Some even have small standing stones by them. I don’t know if they are from the same time as the big cairn but there is something going on here. People have been visiting this special place for years I think.

With the rain still falling we reluctantly left the cairn behind and started north to our next destination – the aisled roundhouse below Meall Meadhonach. From there it was back over the hills to Durness. A long day and hard on the legs but just great, really great. The cairn was worth the wait.

"On the coast of Aberdeenshire lies the spectacular Dunnottar Castle, a 7th century Pictish power centre. Nearby is Dunnicaer, an unassuming and substantially eroded sea stack. Dunnicaer contains evidence to suggest it was an even earlier power center of the Picts.

This film explores the investigations conducted by Aberdeen University into the site, and helps uncover it's mysterious past....."

17/05/2019 – Did my knee in a bit a few weeks back and it’s still sore. Our trip to this patch was mainly for walking, a few ups and a few downs. Thinking I didn’t want to chance my knee with hills every day, I turned to trusty Canmore for a bit of inspiration. Looking at the map I noticed two chambered cairns marked at Cromalt I’d never seen before. I thought that will do nicely for a day trip out. They are a little bit in the middle of nowhere nowadays. After a bit of umming about the best route to them we decided to start at Knockan. There is good parking in the layby on the A895 (NC 2119 1058). There’s a decent track, marked on the OS map, heading SE that took us about half the way. After that it was a bit of bashing over rough ground, trying to head in a straight-ish line to the first cairn at NC2393208131. After a good look at the cairn (very good with nice stones of the chamber still in place) we headed east to this cairn at NC2500907977.

No access problems but I think I’ll mention the going underfoot. There hadn't been much rain round here for ages so the ground was very dry and that made the walk easy going really. If it had been raining for a week before we came I think it would be a completely different kettle of fish. Very soggy and tough going would be my guess. Also a few streams to cross.

The cairn itself is very nice. Not in that bad a condition and a few big stones showing. Location is a little different to a lot of the chambered cairns round here. Very open area. It did remind me a little of Loch Ailsh chambered cairn. Same kind of ditch round this one which may be natural due to the rate of peat build up surrounding the cairn compared to the stony cairn itself.

Very enjoyable day out. Two nice cairns and a bonus one near the start at NC21721041.